US President-elect Donald Trump has named Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host, author and military veteran, as his pick for defence secretary. Hegseth, 44, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, will be responsible for the world's most powerful military in his first political role. Announcing his choice on Tuesday, Trump described him as "tough, smart and a true believer in America First". The news came on the same day Trump announced another political newcomer, billionaire Elon Musk, would...

House Speaker Mike Johnson is seeking a smooth reelection to another term wielding the gavel, but a small group of discontent conservatives are again vying to shake things up at the top. House Republicans are set to vote for a slate of leadership positions behind closed doors on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson and most of his team hope to win reelection to their posts. Mr. Johnson has largely secured the support of the Republican conference. Republican lawmakers are...

Even before Donald Trump named Elise Stefanik the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the New York representative had touted how the president-elect would return to a "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran. The Wall Street Journal said Trump would "drastically increase" sanctions to "choke off" Iran's oil income, which the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported last month reached $144 billion between 2021 and 2023 and $34 billion in 2024....

President-elect Donald Trump met his successor-turned-predecessor, President Biden, in the Oval Office Wednesday during the Republican’s first trip to Washington since his second election.

President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are meeting in the Oval Office, resuming a tradition that Trump himself flouted in 2020. The two men, seated by a roaring fireplace, shook hands. Biden spoke first, calling for a "smooth transition" and telling Trump he will do "everything we can to make sure you're accommodated." Trump followed by thanking Biden.

John Ratcliffe, who served as President-elect Trump's principal intelligence advisor during his first presidential term, has been picked to serve as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency during Trump's second term. Ratcliffe is one of several appointees announced in the past week who will fill key positions during Trump's second term.  "From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the...

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had picked John Ratcliffe, a close ally who was director of national intelligence at the end of his first term, to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Ratcliffe served as the nation's top spy from late May 2020 until Trump left office in January 2021. More recently, he was co-chair of the Center for American Security, a think tank advocating Trump positions, and advised the former Republican president on ...

Inside the US intelligence community, a deep wariness about a second Trump administration has set in, stoked by memories of the antagonistic relationship the nation’s spy agencies had with Donald Trump the last time he was president. But when news broke Tuesday evening that Trump had selected as his CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence, some career officials were cautiously optimistic, seeing Ratcliffe as a largely professional and potentially...

The Justice Department has charged a man for allegedly leaking highly classified US intelligence about Israel’s plans for retaliation against Iran, according to court documents and a person familiar with the case. Asif W. Rahman was indicted last Thursday for willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information, according to court documents. He was arrested Tuesday in Cambodia and will first appear in court in Guam, though the department has asked a federal judge to...

Abortion rights initiatives were on the ballot in 10 states on Tuesday, and won in seven of them. One of the losers was prop 4, Florida’s abortion rights measure, which received a whopping 57% of the vote but failed to meet the state’s unusually high 60% threshold, meaning that the state’s six-week ban will remain in place. Asked about the Florida abortion rights proposition ahead of the election, Trump said that when he went to cast his ballot near Palm Beach, he would vote against it.